Laserdisc player noise (1 Viewer)

[DougFND]

Greetings all.

My Marantz LD player has been making a loud whining/screeching sound when first starting to play a disc. During the noise, the picture sometimes gets distorted a bit. If I jump several chapters ahead, the noise stops. It happens on nearly every disc I try.

Unfortunately, laserdisc was never very popular in my town, so none of the shops want to look at it. A couple have said they will, but let me know that they may have to order some tools (at my cost, of course) to do it.

I'm hoping someone here may have a hint or suggestion for me. I'm willing to open it up and try some things.

I don't know the model number of the top of my head, but it has two-sided playback, AC-3 RF out and optical audio out.

Thanks in advance!

 

[John S]

Well I bought a 2nd LD player becasue I got so paranoid of just this happening. I have a very large library.
If you search you can find working players for $100 and under sometimes. I'd go that route. But it does sound like your player had some good bells and whistles, and may be worth at least try'n to fix. Problem is, if it needs a part, your pretty much up a crick without a paddle anyway with it.

Do a search there are still some online repair shops, that could probably make the repair.

 

[DougFND]

It probably would be better to just buy a different one, since the cost of shipping it and repairing it will be at least $100, if not more. I have a backup that is also AC-3 and two-side playback, but no optical output (meaning, my DTS discs will be useless!).

Does anyone else have any suggestions as to what to look for when I open it up?

 

[John S]

So you only get DTS out of optical? Interesting...

I about fell over the first time I played Titanic, all DTS multichannel and everything.

I guess we would be even, as I have no AC3... lol


Hey got a list of your DTS LD's??? I want more, but hardly any of the online LD places remark the DTS being on their used discs or not. I had no idea Titanic had it til my AVR told me so in big bold DTS-ES letters. I think I even heard the difference before I looked up at the AVR. lol

 

[greg_t]

You can use either a optical out or digital coaxil out for DTS laserdisc.

You can find many DTS lasers on ebay.

 

[DougFND]

Perhaps on the combo DVD/LD units, but I've never seen a digital coaxial out on a standalone LD player.

The only coaxial outputs I've seen are for AC-3 and the signal for those are read from entirely different channels on the disc.

Edit: A quick Google search brought me to a page that states "In order to play DTS encoded LaserDiscs, a LaserDisc player with either a fibre-optic or coaxial digital output is required, in addition to a DTS decoder.". So, this confirms that you are correct, I've just never seen a standalone LD player with that capability.

 

[John S]

But your are correct Doug, if the Digital Coax was AC-3 from the LD player, no way... That gets strip'd off of one of the analog channels.

I'll do a search on ebay, as I am curious of some titles.

 

[John S]

Thanks for the ebay tip, a search turned up 1 page 21 total DTS titles. I'll have to get a few of those.

But, I'll go to a few of the LD selling websites to look, they want a fortune for those DTS discs on Ebay!

I haven't paid what they are getting for an LD in the last 5 years.. lol

 

[greg_t]

The AC3 output looks like a regular RCA style output but as you state is a specific connector intended only for the AC3 track on ld's encoded with AC3, which is contained in the right analog channel. It will not pass DTS or PCM and is specially labled as RF out. The better players, such as many Pioneer Elite models, have both a digital coax out and a fiber optic out for DTS and PCM tracks, and a seperate RF output for AC3.

You have to watch ebay pretty close, one day there'll be 10 dts lasers for sale, then the next it may be 50 or more. I was looking at some a couple of days ago and it seems as if the prices are rising a little bit.

 

[Grant B]

I opened up a few of them and they are mechanical marvels.
Sounds like something is impeding the disc.
I would pop the top and hit play

 

[Philip Hamm]

Doug,

Call around to all the shops in your area. Somebody should be able to help you. My brother Andrew has that same player, and his is also out of comission, at least for now. There is a really great LD guru here in Manassas who I need to bring my CLD-99 to for a check-up. I have 5 LD players including the one Ange has as a stand-in for his Marantz, in order to lengthen the usefulness of my LD collection.

BTW you won't be SOL for parts most likely. That player has Pioneer guts and I think they still supply parts for now at least.

 

[DougFND]

Is his name Kurtis Bahr by chance? That's the name of the guy I bought this from and I seem to remember that he lives in Manassas. I know he's in Virginia. My last resort will be to send it back to him to fix.

I think some shop may be able to help me around here since the problem doesn't seem to be with the laserdisc-specific stuff. Playback is not usually affected by the noise, it's just annoying as hell. I think anyone that works on CD or DVD players should be able to look at it.

I had this one and my Pioneer open side-by-side tonight and they do seem identical. I even swapped a part between the two hoping that was the source of the noise, but no deal.

Thanks for the info.